May -
September 1951: An Exhibition on Sherlock Holmes

On 22nd May 1951 an exhibition opened at
Abbey House, Baker Street, London NW1. Its theme was Sherlock Holmes, and it
gave an existing collection of 'Sherlockiana' (still held today by Westminster Libraries) an
identity of its own . For the 50th Anniversary of its opening
we have created this website to give you a taste of the original
exhibition.

And this is only the beginning. We plan to continue to develop this site
over the coming months, so do keep visiting.

What you have been saying about the site...

We have been receiving lots of positive feedback from you - from all over the
world:

"Well done! It's magnificent."

"Congratulations and grateful thanks are due the Westminster Libraries and
Archives for the fine website taking note of the 50th Anniversary of the
opening of the Exhibition on Sherlock Holmes. For me, it brought back a flood of
memories..."

"Sherlock pages on the website look really good - they are fascinating to
use."

"Thank you very much for the web page on the Baker Street Room. We have
just started going through it and it is excellent. Keep up the good work."
[from the USA]

"Thank you for the delightful link to the Holmes 1951 Exhibition
Catalogue. My favorite moments are: - The sound of "Yes, We Have No
Bananas" played on a barrel organ in Baker Street (not only non Period, but
non English. It was written in New York in the twenties, after someone heard
an Italian fruit peddler enthusiastically tell his customers 'yes, we have no
bananas.') - The cartoon about Professor Moriarty blowing up the
Exhibition should Holmes have a place in it... - and the muffins with two
sets of teeth. This is the sort of charming lunacy that I really enjoy.
The website is a lot of fun as well. I only wish I had been born at the time
so that I might have visited the Exhibition." [from Savannah, Georgia,
USA]

"Thank you so much...!" [from Japan]

"The site is wonderful!" [from Australia]

"Whenever I find couple of minutes free I check your library's website and
learn more about the Exhibition and Sherlock Holmes as well. It was really a
great idea to post there the 1951 exhibition catalogue. I found it an
interesting source of information." [from Czechoslovakia]

'The clever part is the way its site focuses on the colourful 1951
exhibition for which the archive was first assembled, rather than just the
collection itself. So the latter becomes a piece of living history, rather
than simply a bookish pile of pamphlets and documents, to the extent that you
have to pinch yourself to remember that the web was not around in 1951. Doh.'
[review from the Sunday
Times, 29 July 2001]